Native American rights group sues Montana ballot collection law for restricting voting rights
The American Civil Liberties Union along with two other bodies is filing a lawsuit against the state of Montana for its voter registration law, which they argue makes it next to impossible for Native Americans to cast their vote. The ACLU, the ACLU of Montana and Native American Rights Fund (NARF) are suing the state on behalf of Western Native Voice, a Native American led "get-out-the-vote grassroots activist group".
The state's new law called Ballot Interference Prevention Act or BIPA requires anyone who is delivering another person’s ballot to sign a registry and provide the information. Voters will receive this registry form with their ballot. Since most of the Native American reservations lack postal service and are geographically isolated, they rely on voting organizations to collect their ballots and often it is their only way to vote. The new law passed in 2018 puts restrictions on those that collect ballots.
It also regulates how many ballots these organizations can collect, slashing the number from 80-100 to just six ballots per collector, according to the plaintiffs.
"We are urging the court to immediately block this law that would disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters who live on rural reservations," Alora Thomas-Lundborg, ACLU staff attorney, said in a statement as reported in the Hill, "This case is about making sure every eligible voter who wants to vote can actually do so."
According to them, the law does not work with the way of life on the reservations and their social structures — an example would be the definition of a family member, which, for this particular group could be more than just blood relatives.
"BIPA ignores the everyday realities that face Native American communities," Jacqueline De León of the Native American Rights Fund reportedly said, "It is not reasonable to expect voters to drive an hour to drop off their ballot, so collecting ballots in reservation communities just makes sense. Criminalizing this behavior is unfair to Native American voters and does nothing to solve the real problem of mail not being picked up and delivered to Native homes."
"The new law violates the state constitutional right to vote, freedom of speech and freedom of association, and its vague and over-broad restrictions violate due process," the ACLU believes. In Montana, unlike many other states in the United States, there is often no alternative method to absentee ballots, with the state conducting local elections by mail only even when elections allow voting in person, they argue.
Violation of BIPA is subject to penalties ranging from $500 per ballot collected to perjury penalties of up to 10 years in prison and $50,000 in fines.